Traffic camera catches a woman crashing into a car. Police say it all started in a nearby parking lot were...KEARNEY — Nearly 13 years after a near-fatal car accident, Lucas Cox is telling his story.
Cox will be featured on “I Survived … Beyond and Back,” which will air on the Biography Channel at 9 p.m. Jan. 29.
Through first-person accounts and stories from the medical personnel and others present, the show reveals the experiences people have when they are pronounced legally dead.
Cox will reveal his story in the show’s 14th episode and tell viewers how the accident changed his outlook on life forever.
The Accident
On Feb. 19, 1999, 17-year-olds Beau Follmer and Cale Klemme were left in critical condition and 18-year old Cox was in serious condition after the car Follmer was driving rolled a one-quarter mile north of 39th Street on Antelope Road.
Follmer, Klemme and Cox, all Kearney High School seniors at the time, were thrown from the vehicle.
A fourth passenger, 17-year old Todd Muller, was treated at the hospital for minor injuries and released.
According to the Buffalo County Sheriff’s Office accident report, Follmer was driving a 1993 Pontiac Bonneville south on Antelope Road when the vehicle entered the west ditch. The car veered back onto the gravel road, rolled three times and came to rest on its wheels.
Three ambulances from Good Samaritan Hospital transported the victims from the scene.
The report said none of the teens was wearing a seat belt.
Cox suffered a traumatic brain injury and broke his jaw in many places.
According to a March 22, 1999, Hub story, Cox spent 16 days in an induced coma in the Intensive Care Unit at Good Samaritan Hospital.
His first communication after the accident was on March 20, 1999. Cox wrote, “I’m Luke Cox,” on a piece of paper.
He was later transported to the Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln.
When he arrived at Madonna, doctors were unsure if Cox could talk or walk.
“They told me I would be there for a minimum of nine months,” Cox said. “I was only there for 12 days.”
When he returned to Kearney, Cox completed outpatient physical therapy.
“They did a lot of occupational stuff with money. I remember they had me make a pizza, and I thought that was funny,” Cox said.
After the accident, Cox struggled to do elementary-level math. After therapy, Cox said, he fully recovered.
Cox, 31, now works at Luke & Jake’s Bar-B-Q and is a theater major at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
The Show
To be selected for “Beyond and Back,” people are encouraged to submit their story. Cox, however, didn’t submit his story to the Biography Channel.
“I was up really late talking to my friend, Allen, about it and we had never really talked about it before,” Cox said. “This was 12 or 13 years after it happened. When I went home I was still thinking about it.”
Cox found on online forum for people who had experienced near-death situations. Anonymously, he shared his story on the website.